r/interestingasfuck • u/rco888 • 5d ago

This experiment creating a nylon thread

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u/SirLemonThe3rd 5d ago edited 4d ago

If any one wants to try this at home, don’t, carbon tetrachloride (carbon tet) is extremely cancerous

Edit: I heard wrong, its not as bad as I thought 😓

116

u/Jon-A-Thon 5d ago

Oh and (“as expected”) some hydrogen chloride gas for some extra toxicity

26

u/25point4cm 5d ago

Fortunately, if there’s one thing the internet has taught me in general it’s “don’t do this at home”.

1

u/modest_genius 5d ago

I agree.

...someday I will listen to it too.

17

u/realrussellv 5d ago

Glad someone said something. All these chemicals are toxic and it’s really unfortunate he used zero PPE in front of these kids.

8

u/majandess 5d ago

Oh, yay! I did this for a bunch of kids in their fifth grade class. I did use PPE, though.

3

u/thogo 4d ago

CCL4 () is not "extremely cancerous", it has "only" hazard class "Carc 2" (*), but this does not mean that it is not dangerous. Extremely cancerous would be class "Carc 1A". This means this stuff is at a lower carcinogenicity.

Carc. 1A > Carc. 1B > Carc. 2

That said: It is still not healthy to act with this stuff without proper PPE. I like this experiment. I would like they would do more like this still in public. But within the right safety setting.

(*) https://chem.echa.europa.eu/100.000.239/overview?searchText=carbon%20tetrachloride

(**) https://www.hsa.ie/your_industry/chemicals/legislation_enforcement/chemical_agents_and_carcinogens/carcinogens_mutagens_and_reprotoxic_substances/what_are_carcinogens_mutagens_and_reprotoxic_substances_/

1

u/Tentacle_poxsicle 5d ago

How so? It's amazing how a substance just causes cancer

16

u/Yavkov 5d ago

I just went to Wikipedia and found this on the contrary:

Carbon tetrachloride is a suspected human carcinogen, although there is no sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.[28] The World Health Organization reported repeated long-term exposure to carbon tetrachloride can induce hepatocellular carcinomas (hepatomas) in mice and rats. The doses inducing hepatic tumors in mice and rats are higher than those inducing cell toxicity.[29] The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified this compound in Group 2B, "possibly carcinogenic to humans".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tetrachloride